Yesterday, me and a friend had decided to spend the day at town, shopping and having a cup of tea. In full vintage-style outfits. Amazingly, the weather cooperated and it was 15 degrees and sunny, not something we're used to at this time of the year. I found some nice things while shopping, some make-up and tea. I do belive I'm getting old though, after two hours of shopping I'm so ready for my tea =)First image is of my outfit for the day. I realized while wearing it that all my assesoirs were second hand, the skirts heirlooms, stockings and girdle from What Katie Did, and the rest new stuff.Second image, the secong hand things. I got the shoes and the hat along with some other things from Tradera (Swedish Ebay) this past week. Was it not an amazing stroke of luck that the shoes matched the handbag? They actually looked gray at Tradera! Love it when things matches.Third and fouth image, Kattis in a flowery dress with an adorable dotted tuille slip. And just look at the gorgeous shoes!Fifth image is of my sister Kajsa, who joined us for tea. I just love her colour-matching!Last but in no way least, the find of the day: a pair of vintage bloomers, unused, in white cotton with rows upon rows of lace. So cute, so practical. They go up to the waist and down to the stockings, perfect for warmth when the wind is up! I fell in love at first sight, and they just begged me to come home with me. How can a girl refuse that? =)That's all from my day at town!Love, Erika

It's been a busy week, with twice as much work as anticipated. Having your boss wake you up at 6 o'clock in the morning makes the rest of the day a bit fuzzy... Had been hoping to sew a bit this week, but somewhere between work and meetings, that aspiration died. So instead of rambling on about different sewing projects I figured I'd show a few pic's from my newest hobby: knyppling.The swedish word "knyppling" is the making of lace, using thread rolled onto small bobbins. The amazing thing is that it's done without tied knots or weave technique, but the lace is still so strong that one can cut it.First image is my first ever handmade lace. I need to practice... Lol!Secong image is of my lace pillow, a beautiful old one I've inherited from my paternal grandmother's mother (Kerstin). I'm not sure how old it is, but Kerstin was born in the late 19th century. That in combination with comparising this pillow with those I've seen from the 50's, makes me guess it's from the 30s. But it can be the 40s, or the 20s (the latter seems less likely though).Next class is tonight, I'm starting a new practice lace! =)Love, Erika

Today is the premier for "Coco before Chanel" , and it's shown even here up north! It's a movie about Coco Chanels journey from a pretty averege French girl to one of the 20th centuries indisputable greatest fashion icons. The leading role is being played by the beautiful, talented, enchanting, skilled Audrey Tautou.

In a few weeks I get to see it, before then there just isn't time (sad but true). Also, I want to get completley rid of this cold first, I hate coughing at the theatre. Soon, though... I can't wait!

This past week I had intended to sew the dress I planned to wear last Saturday at the Lindy hop Live (swing dancing to live band), but instead I made tableclothes for the dance. It was very much worth it, it really lifted the entire room. Another nice touch was that we borrowed the china, so we didn't have to use plastic cups and paper plates.Kajsa and Kattis decided to tag along, a bit surpirsing but very nice indeed. It was lovely to have them there, and they seemed to like it, so hopefully we'll spend more evenings together at dances =) Kattis was as ever very stylish, I just love her new haricut, and the beads were gorgeous.I was coming down with a cold, so I sat most of the fast songs. But that wasn't so bad, not with such nice company, tasty cakes and great music. My dress for the evening was a second hand find from the Lindy hop shop at Herrang this summer, I love it, the skirt has a nice fall, and the bodice is cut very cleverly. I didn't get a good full length picture, but I'll add one anyway, so you can get an idea of how it looks.

It's been awfully quiet here for a while, my apologies. Two great but a bit time-consuming things have happened; for the first my sister Kajsa decided to move to Umeå! =) She's going to study litterature for a year. It was a last-minute decision so it was a hazzle to find a place for her to live. I finally managed to find her a room through some friends of mine, just five days before she moved here.Mom helped her move, so I got to have mom and Elsa on a visit for a few days =) Most of the time we were just fixing all the small things that needs to be done during a move, but we did find som quiet-time. Among other things, mom started to refresh my memory of how to knit. I'm not sure I actually have any talent for this, but I'm working on a scarf.We also went to some country-side fleemarkets, with Karin as our guide. It was a bit more expensive than I had thought it would be so far away from the city, but at least there was a lot of very nice things to just admire! Of course I brought home a few things, pictured above.

This last Saturday there was a local event called "VIP-galan", an on-the-streets-charity-event, for raising money for the homeless. Both of my dancegroups were involved, so I had a busy week before the festival, with all the practice and sewing a skirt for Rita to match mine. We had a great day, quite a lot of spectators and both shows went really well. I actually like dancing on stage! =)I end this post with the promise that the next post will come a lot quicker than this one, and with a video of us dancing lindy hop. Hope you'll like it!Love, Erika

About Me

Welcome to my blog! This is where I keep an erratic track of the good things in life; there’s lot’s of sewing, swing dancing, some thifting and baking.
I started swing dancing 2006, and in my attempts to dress suitable to the lindy hop period (30s/40s) I also fell for the vintage dressing style. Now I’m bit by bit sewing a wardrobe, both for everyday and for dancing. Some garments are pure re-creation of bygone times, others are more vintageinspired. I’m learning and developing as I go, and it’s a wonderful journey. I hope you’ll enjoy reading about it too!

Some fun this-and-that online

Feel free to borrow my photos for non-commercial use, and I'd be grateful if you link back to me. I'd be even happier with a mail or a comment on where you've used it, but it's not a must =) Thank you so much!